In age of misinformation, cancer care community seeks new strategies to improve communication

ABSTRACT

Healio ;HemOnc Today spoke with oncologists and leading communication experts in science and medicine about the prevalence of cancer misinformation on social media, important research into the issue, and possible strategies to improve communication platforms and disseminate trustworthy information more effectively. A problem 'across multiple health topics' Skyler B. Johnson, MD, physicianscientist at Huntsman Cancer Institute and assistant professor of radiation oncology at The University of Utah, discovered the scale and scope of cancer misinformation when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. In July, Johnson and colleagues published results of a study in Journal of the National Cancer Institute that showed one-third of the most popular cancer treatment articles on social media included inaccurate information. The researchers found that * online search volume for cannabis and cancer increased at 10 times the rate of standard therapies (more in states where recreational or medical cannabis was legal);* cannabis as a cancer cure represented the largest category of social media content (23%) on alternative cancer treatments;* of the 40 high-impact new stories on social media referencing cannabis and cancer, 32 (80%) were false news that proposed cannabis as a cancer cure and only one (2.5%) was an accurate news story that debunked that claim;and * the top false news story claiming cannabis as a cancer cure generated 4.26 million engagements on social media;meanwhile, the top news story debunking this false news only received 36,000 engagements.